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The trust indicators have shown improvement in trust but a niggling doubt remains – could China have another cultural revolution? http://thediplomat.com/2016/05/how-far-is-china-from-another-cultural-revolution/

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This is especially in relation to environmental decisions but also the way they are engaging on the international stage. It is an issue about whether we can trust China to be safeguarding the world’s future?  Sure the stats and programmes look good, but is it enough and can we trust non-verified data from China?

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https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/2007/11/cj27n3-4.pdf

Interesting article which details some indicators of trust. It was a study of about 3,300 households across China but in the end there was no shocking discovery or conclusion – basically Government behaviour can influence trust. Not exactly a novel point of view…

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Possibly not. The fear seems to be driven by a feeling that China is taking over, where in reality their investment in Australia is not particularly high. It is also borne from the lack of transparency or perhaps differences.

Check out http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-27/dal-santo-us-alliance-could-be-our-china-fail-safe/5477528

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China is not broadly trusted by other countries. A recent survey in the Philippines showed it was the least trusted country and the media in Australia has made it clear that we have concerns about China. Recent concern over espionage has decreased trust levels - https://stopforeignownershipinaustralia.com.au/2016/09/05/australia-is-losing-the-battle-against-chinas-citizen-spies/ (even the name of the site says something about how we trust China).

But should China care? Hengjun seems to think that trust will be a barrier to China’s future development but it clearly isn’t yet! http://thediplomat.com/2015/01/time-to-rethink-chinese-diplomacy/

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-          Legitimacy

-          Ability to implement reforms

-          Compliance

-          Confidence in economy

-          Support in crisis

-          Effective Government institutions

-          Social cohesion

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China has received lots of attention in relation to its treatment of dissidents. Human Rights Watch is evidently interested in the ongoing treatment of this group and provides information about the profiles of the major public dissidents and their treatment https://www.hrw.org/chinas-rights-defenders.

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This is an interesting argument as data shows countries with Government’s that control more aspects of their society actually have higher trust (like Singapore). I think this argument only works when Government also has independent checks and balances in place.

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Perhaps the most famous words associated with freedom of the press are China’s Great Media Wall! China controls media. Freedom of press is so important to trust as media is a bit of a balance. If media is controlled citizens might not have a good understanding of what the Government is doing and therefore whether they can trust them. We have seen similar arguments in Australia in relation to the media blackout about irregular maritime arrivals – if you have nothing to hide, why aren’t you letting free media in?

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The lack of recognisable checks and balances on the government’s activities lead me to ask how can you trust a Government when no one is watching them?  http://www.economist.com/news/china/21578065-officials-try-rein-corruption-without-undertaking-political-reform-checked-and-balanced

The attached details common checks and balances and how they apply to China.

China tries to provide checks and balances through Government structure like the use of committees, internal oversight authorities (like the CCDI) and so on. My issue with this is that if Government doesn’t like the behaviour of the part in the structure which challenges them, they can change the structure – there is no second line of defence.

The other check of course, is China’s dependence on trade – other countries actually act as a check and balance. This has not always been successful!

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I think that having the dual focus on flies and tigers was at the same time in the anticorruption campaign is really important. This is because to build trust we need to focus at a level where government interacts with the population (the flies). But this can’t occur if you don’t have the higher levels already all sorted and people can see the very public changes/prosecutions which are occurring. (Ps not so sure about the cowboy??)

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Dong (2010) finds that corruption has both positive and negative impacts on economic development in China (setting his work aside from other authors). His conclusions are summarised below.

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YES! Croucher “In China it is very sad to hear people you know and respect sadly shake their heads and admit "中国没有好人”, China has no good people.” Rubbish of course, but interesting that the notion that Government and officials serve their own interests above those of their constitutions seems to be so acceptable. Humans are great at justifying bad behaviour and no one thinks their behaviour makes them bad!

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The link is to a blog https://www.quora.com/Why-dont-Chinese-people-trust-their-government#

It focuses on similarities about trust – all about the individuals that make up Government. If these people are corrupt or ‘bad’ you can’t trust government. This is how we link the notions of corruption to trust.

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https://youtu.be/s0YjL9rZyR0

The video details a Chinese citizen’s journey about trusting Government. It looks at the narratives that Chinese people grow with and contrasts this against more common western ideals. It then traces how the Government in China ‘corrects’ poor policy without taking responsibility for failures. How can a population trust a Government who does this?

He also traces the evolution of meritocracy in politics –which is interesting given it is often a complaint western countries hold about their government (all old Caucasian men in Australia!).

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-13017882

This link provides a very useful overview of chronology of events which have shaped China’s Government. Some of the events, like the response to SARS, china in Space and the anticorruption work have increased trust. Some have destroyed it – like the cultural revolution.  But just as the events have effected trust, I think some of the events have only occurred because of low trust in Government or the need to build up trust in government (like anticorruption).

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Commentator Roberts (https://www.quora.com/Do-Chinese-citizens-trust-their-government) seems to equate China’s high trust in their Government with the fact that China is doing more for their individual citizens than before:

The Chinese trust in their government has been rising steadily as Chinese perceive that their government is acting for their best interests – rather than for a privileged few

The evidence does show some indicators are higher see: https://data.oecd.org/china-people-s-republic-of.htm

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https://www.quora.com/Do-Chinese-citizens-trust-their-government

More so than Americans!

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https://hbr.org/2015/02/understanding-trust-in-china-and-the-west

The Harvard article suggests that there is trust with Chinese characteristics! The major difference seems to be the high impact of individuals and relationships in China. The West, however, can build trust through track records instead and have a strong concept of trust in institutions. We care about this because it impacts on how Government can build trust and also goes someway to explaining Chinese fascination with their leaders. It is hard for a Government to build relationships with people which may explain the importance placed on the leader/president. China has a very active and public president because he has to connect with the people to build trust.

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This diagram shows you the effect of the anticorruption campaign– the only way that anticorruption efforts improve trust is if they are actually effective and ca produce awesome and public info that shows it!

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http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/donations-dastyari-and-chinese-soft-power-20160909-grcfyk.html

It is possible for the actions of Chinese people in Australia to affect the trust we have in our Government. This scandal certainly shows that, however I am not convinced that it has had any impact on trust between the Australian and Chinese Governments. I think the group who has lost most trust in this scenario is Chinese business in Australia. What I found most interesting about this article was the need to identify TOP Education and Dr Zhu as Chinese. Does this mean that we would not have reacted the same way or been so concerned if the business involved had a different background? Is it making an argument that Chinese business is more likely to influence/interfere with Australian politics than other nationalities (perhaps because of Guanxi?)? This certainly has not been our experience with the influence of unions and developers often touted as inappropriate. I also question if the Government reacted so strongly because of a public perception that Chinese interests are much more negative or more closely linked to their Government than others.

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It all sounds so easy! But in the Chinese environment there are some significant barriers to making progress in these areas. To me, reliability is connected to openness – if people don’t understand how the Government makes a decision, they can’t think that the decisions are made reliably. China still struggles with openness and sees instead a benefit from control of the media. Better regulation is, in my view, a bit misleading. Making regulation is something China has no issues with, but without proper and consistent application of that regulation and rule of law to allow challenges of the regulation, China won’t be able to win back trust. Integrity is really relating to corruption and China has made headway in this space with the very public anticorruption campaign. There are special barriers for China to use inclusive policy making. First of all, not being a democracy means that they can’t claim that important policy decisions are made by representatives of the people and the population doesn’t get to engage in the political process like we do – for example voting yes to trams and no to Medicare levies! Given China’s size and diversity, a question must also be asked about who we include in policy making and how we could possibly do this efficiently.

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http://www.oecd.org/gov/trust-in-government.htm

The OECD provides some important information about how we trust Governments. In short, a lack  of trust compromises the willingness of the population to respond and contribute to the nation. So many of the public policy decisions Government make actually depends on the population to contribute or at the very least remain compliant/not oppose. Trust in some key Government’s is decreasing (only 40% of citizens trust their Governments). The graph just shows some of the countries. Most counties have had trust fall recently (perhaps the impact of the financial crisis?).

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This conflict seems to have dominated news about China recently. Some commentators argue the conflict is not about territory, protecting shipping channels or even resources. Rather it is an attempt to build trust. China’s engagements in this issue may be designed to show the people that they can trust the Government to:

-          Stand against power in support of their interests

-          Disagree with international directions which are not supported

-          Use military power when required

-          Be sensible in response (not nuclear!)

-          Remember and engage countries which have previously treated China poorly (Japan)

-          Protect China’s sovereignty and guard against interference in their territory. �

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The East and South China Seas are the scene of escalating territorial disputes between China and its neighbors, including Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The tensions, shaped by Chinaâ€™s growing assertiveness, have fueled concerns over armed conflict and raised questions about Washingtonâ€™s security commitments in its strategic rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region.